Ella Young
| birth_place = County Antrim, Ireland | death_date = July | death_place = Oceano, California, United States | occupation = Poet, folklorist, teacher | nationality = Irish American | period = Modernist | genre = | subject = Celtic mythology | movement = Irish Literary Revival | notableworks = Celtic Wonder Tales; The Wonder-Smith and His Son; The Tangle-Coated Horse | influences = | influenced = }} Ella Young (26 December 1867 - 23 July 1956) was an Irish poet and Celtic mythologist active in the Gaelic and Celtic Revival literary movement of the late 19th and early 20th century. Life Overview Born in Ireland, Young was an author of poetry and children's books. She emigrated from Ireland to the United States in 1925 as a temporary visitor and lived in California. For five years, she gave speaking tours on Celtic mythology at American universities, and in 1931, she was involved in a publicized immigration controversy when she attempted to become a citizen. Young held a chair in Irish Myth and Lore at the University of California, Berkeley for seven years. At Berkeley, she was known for her colorful and lively persona, giving lectures while wearing the purple robes of a Druid, expounding on legendary creatures such as fairies and elves, and praising the benefits of talking to trees. Her encyclopedic knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject of Celtic mythology attracted and influenced many of her friends and won her a wide audience among writers and artists in California, including poet Robinson Jeffers, philosopher Alan Watts, photographer Ansel Adams, and composer Harry Partch, who set several of her poems to music. Later in life, she served as the "godmother" and inspiration for the Dunites,Hammond 1992, pp. 37–38. a group of artists living in the dunes of San Luis Obispo County. She retired to the town of Oceano, where she died at the age of 88. Youth and earlywork in Ireland Young was born in Fenagh, County Antrim. She grew up in Dublin in a Protestant family and attended the Royal University. She later received her master's degree at Trinity College, Dublin.However, in The Maunsel Poets (2004), David Gardiner says Young attended Trinity College, Dublin, not the Royal University of Ireland. In an interview hosted by Dunes Collaborative, Gavin Arthur says Young received her master's degree at Trinity College. See Arthur, Gavin. "Arthur Talks About Ella Young". Part 5. Dunes Collaborative. Date unknown. Her interest in Theosophy led her to become an early member of the Hermetic Society, the Dublin branch of the Theosophical Society, where she met writer Kenneth Morris. Her acquaintance with "Æ" (George William Russell) resulted in becoming one of his select group of protégés, known as the "singing birds". Russell had been her near neighbour, growing up on Grosvenor Square.Dublin City Libraries, short biography. Young's nationalist sentiments and her friendship with Patrick Pearse, gave her a supporting role in the Easter Rising; as a member of Cumann na mBan,She was a member of Inghinidhe na hÉireann (Daughters of Ireland) before it merged with Cumann na mBan in 1914. See Bradley & Valiulis, Gender and Sexuality in Modern Ireland (1997). she smuggled rifles and other supplies in support of Republican forces.Starr 2009, pp. 324–326. Young's first volume of verse, titled simply Poems, was published in 1906, and her first work of Irish folklore, The Coming of Lugh, was published in 1909. She became friends with William Butler Yeats' erstwhile flame Maud Gonne, and Gonne illustrated Young's first book of stories, Celtic Wonder Tales (1910). Although Young continued to write poetry, it was for her redactions of traditional Irish legends that she became best known. Immigration to the United States Young first came to the United States in the 1920s to visit friends, traveling to Connecticut to meet Mary Colum (Molly) and her husband, Irish poet Padraic Colum.Hammond 2002, pp. 15–16. In 1922, Celtic studies scholar William Whittingham Lyman Jr. left the University of California, Berkeley. Young was hired to fill the post in 1924 and she immigrated to the United States in 1925. According to Kevin StarrStarr was State Librarian of California and history professor at the University of Southern California Young "had been briefly detained at Ellis Island as a probable mental case when the authorities learned that she believed in the existence of fairies, elves, and pixies."Starr 2009, pp. 54–55. At the time, people suspected to have a mental illness were denied admission to the U.S. While based in California, Young began speaking at various universities in 1925, first lecturing at Columbia UniversityWalsh 2009, p. 75. and then Smith College, Vassar College and Mills College. According to Norm Hammond, :Wherever she went, she was received enthusiastically, especially by the young people of America. They loved this white-haired lady with the eyes of a seer that appeared to be lighted from within. She spoke with a melodious voice; when she spoke everyone listened. She had a thin, wispy quality that made her appear as the apparition of the very spirits she described. Indeed, her skin had an almost translucent quality.Hammond 1992, p. 29. Young lived in Sausalito, California, in the mid-1920s.Lyman 1973, p. 65. She was the James D. Phelan Lecturer in Irish Myth and Lore at the University of California, Berkeley for approximately a decade.Walsh 2009 says she held the position for seven years, but the Celtic Studies Program at UCB says it was ten years. As of 1931 she had not received legal immigration status, and Charles Erskine Scott Wood advised her to go to Victoria, British Columbia and restart the process toward American citizenship. Her application for re-entry to the U.S. was declined for months on the grounds that she might become a "public charge."Letter to the editor from C.E.S. Wood, The Saturday Review of Literature, 14 March 1931, p. 668, retrieved at www.unz.org 12 December 2012. Later life In 1928, Young's book The Wonder-Smith and His Son, illustrated by Boris Artzybasheff, became a Newbery Honor Book (runner-up). During the 1920s, she occasionally visited Halcyon, California, a Theosophical colony near San Luis Obispo. While living in a cabin behind John Varian's house there, Young finished writing The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales, a 1930 Newbery Honor Book.Hammond 2002, p. 16. See In Halcyon, her eclectic circle of friends included Ansel Adams, whom she had first met in either 1928 or 1929 in San Francisco through their mutual friend, Albert M. Bender. She traveled with Adams and his wife, Virginia, to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1929, spending time with friends and visiting artists at the Taos art colony, and staying with Mabel Dodge Luhan. In Taos, Young also visited with Georgia O'Keeffe.Hammond 2002, pp. 14–16; Adams, Ansel. "Ansel Adams Talks About Ella Young". Part I. Dunes Collaborative. Date unknown. A photograph of Young and Virginia Adams appears in Ansel Adams's autobiography. Adams recalls that Young and fellow writer Mary Hunter Austin did not get along very well together, but that conservationist Dorothy Erskine was one of Young's good friends. In 1932, The Unicorn with Silver Shoes was released, illustrated by Robert Lawson. Young published her autobiography, Flowering Dusk: Things Remembered Accurately and Inaccurately in 1945. Later, she found particular affinity in the California Redwoods After battling cancer, Young was found dead in her home in Oceano on 23 July 1956. She was cremated, and in October, her ashes were scattered in a redwood grove.The funeral ceremony is described by W. W. Lyman in Part 2 of "W.W. Lyman Talks About Ella Young", Dunes Collaborative. A grave marker is located in the Santa Maria Cemetery District, Santa Maria, California. Young left the bulk of her estate to the Save-the-Redwoods League.Last Will and Testament of Ella Young, registry # 8660, County Clerk's Office, County of San Luis Obispo 1956 Recognition Writers John Matthews and Denise Sallee released an annotated anthology of Ella Young's work in 2012, entitled At the Gates of Dawn: A collection of writings by Ella Young. Writer Rose Murphy released a biography of Ella Young in 2008.Walsh 2009, p. 75; See also: "Ella Young, Irish mystic and rebel; from literary Dublin to the American West." Reference & Research Book News (2008); Lowery, Robert. "Irish-(North) America." Irish Literary Supplement 28.2 (2009): 28. The South County Historical Society of San Luis Obispo County, California is active in the research and preservation of the history of the Dunites and Ella Young. See for example: An archive of her papers is currently held by the Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections at the University of California, Los Angeles.Ella Young Papers, 1900–1956. California Digital Library. Celtic Wonder Tales, The Wonder-Smith and His Son, and The Tangle-Coated Horse were republished in 1991 by Floris Books and Anthroposophic Press. Publications Poetry *''Poems''. Dublin: Maunsel, 1906. *''The Rose of Heaven: Poems'' (illustrated by Maud Gonne). Dublin: Candle Press, 1920. *''The Weird of Fionavar''. Dublin: Talbot Press, 1922. *''Marzilian, and other poems''. Oceano, CA: Harbison & Harbison, 1938. *''Seed of the Pomegranate, and other poems''. 1949. *''Smoke of Myrrh, and other poems''. 1950. Non-fiction *''Flowering Dusk: Things remembered accurately and inaccurately''. New York & Toronto: Longmans Green, 1945; London: Dobson, 1947. Juvenile *''The Coming of Lugh: A Celtic wonder-tale'' (illustrated by Maud Gonne). Dublin; Maunsel, 1909. *''Celtic Wonder-Tales'' (illustrated by Maud Gonne). Dublin; Maunsel, 1910; New York: Dutton, 1923. *''The Wonder-Smith and His Son: A tale from the golden childhood of the world'' (illustrated by Boris Artzybasheff). New York & London: Longmans Green, 1927. *''The Tangle-Coated Horse, and other tales: Episodes from the Fionn saga'' (illustrated by Finn MacCumhaill). New York & Toronto: Longmans Green, 1929. *''To the Little Princess: An epistle''. San Francisco: Johnck & Young, 1930. *''The Unicorn with Silver Shoes'' (illustrated by Robert Lawson). New York & Toronto: Longmans Green, 1932. Collected editions *''At the Gates of Dawn: A collection of writings'' (edited by John Matthews & Denise Sallee). Cheltenham, UK: Skylight Press, 2011. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Ella Young, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Aug. 19, 2015. See also *List of Irish poets References * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Notes External links ;Poems *"The Rose of Silence" *Young in Poetry: A magazine of verse, 1912-1922: "Fiametta," "Greeting" ;About *"One with Beauty: The luminous life of Ella Young" at Chalice Centre *''Ella Young, Irish Mystic and Rebel: From literary Dublin to the American West'' reviewed *Ella Young and Her World: Celtic Mythology, The Irish Revival and The Californian Avant-Garde, Dorothea McDowell (2015) ;Etc. * Category:1867 births Category:1956 deaths Category:19th-century Irish people Category:American fantasy writers Category:American Theosophists Category:Irish children's writers Category:Irish emigrants to the United States Category:Irish fantasy writers Category:Irish Theosophists Category:Irish folklorists Category:Irish women poets Category:Irish women writers Category:Mythographers Category:Newbery Honor winners Category:People from County Antrim Category:People from County Dublin Category:People from San Luis Obispo County, California Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty Category:Dunites Category:Women writers for children Category:Women science fiction and fantasy writers Category:American women novelists Category:20th-century poets Category:20th-century women writers Category:Irish poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Women poets